USB TV Tuner / DVB Kernel modules

[Olliebrown]

I have an older but very popular USB TV tuner (Pinnacle 801e) that has DVB kernel module support on Linux. It works great on RPI3 and 4 with stock Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS. We now have an OrangePi 5B and are struggling to get it working there.

• On the stock Ubuntu server image from OrangePi, the device is recognized but DVB never starts and firmware is never uploaded.
• On your Ubuntu image, the same behavior happens: the device is recognized but DVB does not startup.

I looked through the kernel config from /proc/config and very few of the DVB kernel device driver modules seem to be enabled (I see CONFIG_DVB_CORE, the usual frontends, but no USB or PCI devices). This is supported by what I see in the '/lib/modules/rockchip-rk3588/' dir: 'drivers/media/usb/dvb-usb' is completely absent.

I haven't dug too deep yet, but on the surface, it looks like I need to get these modules/drivers in there to make it work. They are there in the kernel source still (at least over in the armbian/rockchip repo), so I think the modules are just not getting enabled at compile time.

Can anyone advise if I'm thinking right? I haven't built the kernel in a couple of decades (literally) and maybe I'm just misunderstanding the state of things.

If this does seem like the right way to go, am I going to be able to adjust your build scripts to enable these extra modules? Are they likely to even build for the rockchip arch without patching? I'm up for the journey to figure this out and I'll do my homework on how, but if someone could at least help me know if I'm barking up the right tree I'd appreciate it :-)

[Joshua-Riek]

The kernel is Android technically, so some drivers are completely broken. That being said it's not feasible to enable all generic modules you may find on a board like the Raspberry Pi 4. I'm not sure which modules specifically are required, but enabling them in the kernel config then rebuilding the kernel would be the best approach.

[Olliebrown]

Well, I gave it a try and it seems to work! I needed to add the dvb-usb-dib0700 module (and its various dependencies). Here's the basic process I followed:

• Follow the first step in compiling the linux kernel (cloning the source)
• Edit the file arch/arm64/configs/rockchip_linux_defconfig and enable any needed kernel config options
  • I had to add the following:

CONFIG_DVB_USB=m
CONFIG_DVB_USB_DIB0700=m
CONFIG_RC_CORE=m
CONFIG_MEDIA_RC_SUPPORT=m

• I searched around and found good places to stick these (near similar options)
• Edit the root Makefile and set the following near the top:
  EXTRAVERSION = -rockchip
  • If you don't do that, the modules wind up in the wrong folder under /lib/modules and modprobe can't find them
• Finish the 'compiling the linux kernel' steps in the wiki

After installing the new kernel and rebooting, I check the tail of dmesg and sure enough, it was loading up dvb for my tv tuner stick just fine! I just finished compiling tvheadend (following this guide) and it finally sees my tuner and I can watch live TV from anywhere in the house!